"Odyssey of The Summoner" is OUT!! Find it here...

[nekarcos]

"Odyssey of The Summoner" has been updated!! (Version 0.4.3)
*** Version: 0.4.3 ~ "Now with more Sandworm Lair!"
*** A quick bug fix-- Mostly still watching to see if anything strange happens while I work on some new stuff.

[GENERAL]
(CHANGES)
- "Cunning" now has the greatest influence on Clasping, while "Willpower" is the next.
*** NOTICE: I have created a special flag that will make "Clasp" continue to behave the same way it did BEFORE the update for OLD characters. NEW characters will operate under this behavior. ALSO NOTE: This WILL NOT be reflected in the Talent Description or anything-- It is up to you to be aware of this change!

(BUGS)
- Fixed a minor leak in the code. "Summoner" locations should no longer appear during non-avatar campaigns
- Temporarily "silenced" the "Tooltip" code. Until I can figure out what exactly to do about Sandworm Lair bugging out, this will have to go.
- Heheheheh... The "other ones" weren't being affected by the "rexorcorum" graphics...


[HYDRA]
(BUFFS)
- "Drench" has a longer duration at all levels.
- "Mist Shroud" has a longer duration at all levels.


[DRAKELINGS]
(BUFFS)
- You now receive a message indicating how and when a Drakeling's "Dependency" has shifted.
*** This will ONLY apply to "NEW" Drakelings. Any old Drakelings won't have this behavior.
*** As usual, enter the Wilderness to have the Drakelings updated

[nekarcos]

Attention! It's time to come to a conclusion about a VOLATILE change. Please be seated, and we shall soon commence.

AHEM!! Alright people, what's the verdict on [Hydra's Recuperate talent having 80% potency, but no healing mod influence]...?


Let's start the trial off with MY case on the point:

[This is FAR too OP. Hydra requires NO "thoughtful" investments WHATSOEVER to get rather EXTREME, PRODIGY-levels of benefit out of it... And what's the catch? "THIS damage type might NOT heal you"...?? Absurd. Outrageous. Get it outta here!!]

Ahem-- Now people, you have heard my piece. Abolish it? Refute it? It's up to you... But, WITHOUT any additional judgment, MY case is all that stands-- And so be it as I say, it shall be done.
Let's hear it, people.

[tabs]

Attention! It's time to come to a conclusion about a VOLATILE change. Please be seated, and we shall soon commence.

AHEM!! Alright people, what's the verdict on [Hydra's Recuperate talent having 80% potency, but no healing mod influence]...?


Let's start the trial off with MY case on the point:

[This is FAR too OP. Hydra requires NO "thoughtful" investments WHATSOEVER to get rather EXTREME, PRODIGY-levels of benefit out of it... And what's the catch? "THIS damage type might NOT heal you"...?? Absurd. Outrageous. Get it outta here!!]

Ahem-- Now people, you have heard my piece. Abolish it? Refute it? It's up to you... But, WITHOUT any additional judgment, MY case is all that stands-- And so be it as I say, it shall be done.
Let's hear it, people.

I can't say I was tempted at all to put any points in the tree. So, while I can't say if it is or is not balanced, it certainly doesn't seem good.

Also, got this LUA error while fighting Corrupted Sandworm:

Code: Select all

Lua Error: ...neka_therianthropy_summoner/superload/mod/class/Grid.lua:8: attempt to call global 'base_tooltip' (a nil value)
	At [C]:-1 base_tooltip
	At ...neka_therianthropy_summoner/superload/mod/class/Grid.lua:8 check
	At /engine/Map.lua:801 checkEntity
	At /mod/class/Tooltip.lua:36 check
	At /mod/class/Tooltip.lua:71 getTooltipAtMap
	At /engine/Tooltip.lua:284 displayAtMap
	At /engine/interface/GameTargeting.lua:66 targetDisplayTooltip
	At /mod/class/Game.lua:1597 

[nekarcos]

@tabs
The new update should completely stop the Sandworm Lair errors; I omitted the code associated with them.

[emblempride]

A Hydra question: I noticed that the Serpent's Glare and Crystal Focus attacks are listed separately in the char sheet. Does this mean that where attacks are concerned you effectively have an extra head for each? Or do the heads that clasped them gain the damage bonuses/an extra attack?

[nekarcos]

A Hydra question: I noticed that the Serpent's Glare and Crystal Focus attacks are listed separately in the char sheet. Does this mean that where attacks are concerned you effectively have an extra head for each? Or do the heads that clasped them gain the damage bonuses/an extra attack?

They are, in ALL function, ADDITIONAL heads. However, only "Feral", "Glare", and "Drool" heads are relevant to most hydra abilities.
For example, if you use "Tear Apart", those special heads WILL get involved and add additional attacks.

In other words, it's possible to have MORE than 16 heads by "finding" extra ones.

[nsrr]

Just an FYI to anyone playing OoTS with ZOmnibus:

I mentioned the interaction between ZOmnibus and OoTS to Zizzo and he pushed out an update to remove this conflict. I can confirm that the newest version of ZOmnibus (or the separate Talent Point Planner that was apparently at fault) will no longer allow Avatars to learn Combat Training or Staff Combat from the various places you may have been able to learn them before.

I can't promise there are no other interactions, but this was the only one that had been found to break OoTS by giving Avatars access to talents they were not meant to have. You can now play OoTS while enjoying the QoL that Zizzo works so hard to bring to us without this concern.

[nekarcos]

@nsrr
Oh wow... That wasn't necessary at all, modifying his add-on on MY behalf!

Give Zizzo my regards! I TRULY appreciate this!

[emblempride]

Looks like the Drool head globule isn't triggering when using Trinity Attack

EDIT: Also, I know you've made mention of a reward for beating the Dark Crypt. I beat Kryl'Feijan, then save scummed when nothing happened and saved Melinda, but her father only gave me the usual random unique and I exhausted all of the dialogue options. Is there something I'm missing?

[nekarcos]

Looks like the Drool head globule isn't triggering when using Trinity Attack

EDIT: Also, I know you've made mention of a reward for beating the Dark Crypt. I beat Kryl'Feijan, then save scummed when nothing happened and saved Melinda, but her father only gave me the usual random unique and I exhausted all of the dialogue options. Is there something I'm missing?

RE: Trinity Attack
Been messing around with it and it seems to be working fine... Did you have Drool heads at the time you used it...?

RE: Dark Crypt
Did The Summoner communicate with you...? Depending on your answer, you got a talent level in either Summoner Bond or Summoner Disparity.
... In the future, I might make it a little more evident when/how you get these talent levels... So this is kinda my bad.

[emblempride]

Looks like the Drool head globule isn't triggering when using Trinity Attack

EDIT: Also, I know you've made mention of a reward for beating the Dark Crypt. I beat Kryl'Feijan, then save scummed when nothing happened and saved Melinda, but her father only gave me the usual random unique and I exhausted all of the dialogue options. Is there something I'm missing?

RE: Trinity Attack
Been messing around with it and it seems to be working fine... Did you have Drool heads at the time you used it...?

RE: Dark Crypt
Did The Summoner communicate with you...? Depending on your answer, you got a talent level in either Summoner Bond or Summoner Disparity.
... In the future, I might make it a little more evident when/how you get these talent levels... So this is kinda my bad.

Trinity Attack: Yeah, have been sporadically using it as I play, doesn't seem to happen in any situation. The rest of the talent's damage and effects apply though.

Melinda: I tried the Angolwen message option, but that only looped the conversation, same with the Derth option. When I chose the blue option and asked her to come to the fortress, I first listened to the Summoner to resist the temptation, but nothing happened. Went through the cycle and "resisted" again, but to avail. Presumably could have kept looping through the conversation to that point without effect. Eventually went with saying "Damn you" to the Summoner, but the only effect that seems to have had is that the blue option no longer appears when trying to talk to Melinda and the quest is still listed as active.

[nekarcos]

Trinity Attack: Yeah, have been sporadically using it as I play, doesn't seem to happen in any situation. The rest of the talent's damage and effects apply though.

Melinda: I tried the Angolwen message option, but that only looped the conversation, same with the Derth option. When I chose the blue option and asked her to come to the fortress, I first listened to the Summoner to resist the temptation, but nothing happened. Went through the cycle and "resisted" again, but to avail. Presumably could have kept looping through the conversation to that point without effect. Eventually went with saying "Damn you" to the Summoner, but the only effect that seems to have had is that the blue option no longer appears when trying to talk to Melinda and the quest is still listed as active.

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Something's wrong! The option isn't going away........ You can keep picking it!
Oh god... I wonder if anybody has been abusing this??

Hahah... I screwed up bad. Oh well. I can't release another patch in such quick succession with the last, so can I trust everyone not to abuse this horrible glitch (that ACTUALLY makes going through the Dark Crypt worth it in a VERY broken way)...? I honestly wouldn't blame you if you wanted to mess around with this-- But no funny stuff, okay??


Update: Figured it out. Summary: I'm an idiot.

[emblempride]

Ah, so it WAS giving me the talent levels! Just checked, and yup, I have two points in Summoner's Bond, one in Summoner's Disparity. So just a reminder, choosing to curse the Summoner instead DOES work as intended and cancels the conversation loop, ending the exploit (unfortunately for me). If only I'd have known, 100% damage reduction and 900 luck would have been nice.

A few notes at mid-game, Maj'Eyal just about mopped up:
This is the only run where I've ignored the Recuperate tree and focused on Natural Combat and it has significantly increased the Hydra's survivability. Playing on Norm/Adv, I use to lose at least 3 lives by the end of the T2s. Admittedly, I play pretty recklessly. Now, at level 30 and preparing to head into Dreadfell, even with my playstyle the only life I have lost was at Dark Crypt, and that was solely because of my recklessness. That's the only real change I've made in my build, and my luck with drops this run has been terrible. Even with that 80% regen, those points are better off spent tanking the Hydra out through Natural Combat. One suggestion I can make is to let the Splitting Wounds recuperation effect stack with the regular Recuperate effect. The max health increase doesn't matter if your regen can't keep up with it, and when you find yourself in a position where shutting off Splitting Wounds seems like it would be helpful, the regen is almost always only slightly stronger than the regular recuperation effect.

Been doing an exclusively Wil/Dex/Str Hydra, maxing out Breaths first and ever-so-slowly making the transition to melee. As said, Breaths stagnate at level 20, around when melee damage starts to catch up, but are essential for the early game. Drag In is really weak early game but still good for the daze, but it now does the most damage out of all my talents at level 3, where it'll probably stay. However, aside from Lash Forth's too-situational stun, the rest of the Feral tree is underwhelming. Haven't unlocked the Ravenous tree to see how they synergize though. Triad tree's pretty great all-around.

Without Cun I haven't really had a problem with clasping and you can get crit from equipment. I'm going with Str for max encumbrance and the biting damage mod. Poisons + Mist definitely seems like an powerful combo if I were to go with Cun next run. It's already been said that the Glare tree needs some touching up and currently I don't feel it's worth using as a whole, but Stare Down alone is a great for any build.

Con is pretty much useless in the base game so it's not a fault with this addon, but an emphasis on it without augmenting it and listing it as one of the Hydra's main stats can be detrimental to new players. Corruption (for the Hydra) is not an issue on Normal as long as you hang onto all of the infusions you find, and if you don't there's a bunch of shops that'll stock you up before the Mark or lvl 24. Perhaps having it affect Prudence talents somehow would be beneficial, so that it is used for more than just stat reqs and Underdog (haven't touched the Ego tree)? Haven't really used Prudence either as it doesn't seem to be too strong as well, you can leave a point in Tolerance or max it out and would probably be better off not touching the rest of the tree in lieu of more Natural Combat stuff.

Hoarding Beast is great and fine as is imo aside from Relief. Inventive and powerful without being OP.

As for Natural Combat, I went with - 1st point Hungry Eyes (currently still at one point) for the regen, a point in Elusiveness once the speed increase breaks 100%, a point in Rabbit's Foot, and then maxing out Growing Bones and Nature Hardened asap, putting points into Strength of the Bear and Eagle Eyes when I can.

We'll see how this goes, I'm very confident.

[nekarcos]

@emblempride
Neat-- Sounds like you have a proper battle plan all written out for the Far East section of the game!

RE: Recuperate is useless?
This is strange. The whole point of "Recuperate" was to shirk the need for Armor entirely, since any blow you receive is just going to rubberband right back anyways. It's important to consider that it's a "slow" rubberbanding, so you need a nice healthy tank of hit points to truly gain the benefits of it... That, or you should beat a retreat when the damage you're taking is getting overwhelming. Oh and, of course, if something hits you REALLY, really hard-- "Ceaseless Blood" should be able to refund that damage rather quickly. I've heard very little word about use of this effect, however. It is generally a life-saver for me when I run into REALLY nasty uniques who happen to have gotten their hands on nasty weapons.
Overall... I'm still not quite convinced armor beats out its usefulness-- But I guess Prevention ("Armor") is always better than Reparation ("Recuperation") when it comes to survival, right? I'll have to continue observing this for now, though it won't be for much longer that this behavior is around...

RE: Reckless Play
Ain't it awful? You have ALL these tools for scouting ahead, but you just can't be bothered to learn/use any of them because you're convinced you're just being overly paranoid... Or at least, that's how *I* always feel whenever I play an Avatar...

RE: Stacking Recuperation
ALL Recuperation stacks! Being struck with Recuperate... Popping "Splitting Wounds'... Being hit really hard with Ceaseless Blood... They ALL add up! I made sure they do! However, it functions the same way DOTs (Poison, Burning, etc...) and Regenerations do, in that the "total power" of the effect is merged with the "total power" of the new effect-- Then, the new duration is the mean of both the old and new effects. Because of how this works, it can appear as though Recuperation is being WEAKENED by new effects because the new one is so much weaker than the old one (this is ESPECIALLY true if the original one is at something like 2 turns, while the new one is 10 turns long).

RE: Muscle Hydra
No Constitution, huh...? Hmmm...

RE: Clasping is still easy
Good. This is what I expected. Now the Ritch has a way to QUICKLY become able to use a Bloodcaller whilst STILL investing in a useful stat. It will also make the chance of failure a little more "visible" to Hydra and Fire Drake now-- Which should always be the case.

RE: Mist isn't so poisonous
A while ago, I had to clarify the description of Sickening Mist to make it clear that it is NOT poison. Fair warning...

RE: Constitution is pointless
Hmmm... I think this more-so attests to how POWERFUL Armor builds seem to be. I'll have to continue watching this... Not quite ready to bring a hammer down onto this one yet.

RE: "Prudence" is a one-talent wonder
Good. That's how it was created-- And exactly why Hydra gets the tree unlocked, so I'm not entirely upset about that, hahaha...

RE: "We'll see how this goes"
Good luck, sir! Personally, I feel Avatar's second half of the game is MUCH easier, since most of "the enemies" you fight there are suited to an Avatar's strengths. This, and "the true potential" of an Avatar is unlocked at around this time-- The Talent Level 10 power-jump for Natural Combat, the "hidden prodigies"-- And most importantly: Access to "Lifelink" bonuses.
Things should start looking bright for you from here!

[jenx]

The life link bonus i choose this time is totally underwhelming. Unless it has a hidden benefit. Just got 100 hp and 3 regeneration. Meh. Not even worth wearing...